Football: Former CU Buffs coach Brian Cabral hired by Indiana State

Long-time Buffaloes assistant to join Sycamores' staff

Former Colorado assistant coach Brian Cabral will be the defensive coordinator at Indiana State next fall.
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JEREMY PAPASSO
)

Brian Cabral, who recently retired from the University of Colorado football staff, has been hired as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Indiana State University.

The athletic department web sites for both CU and Indiana State reported Cabral's hiring on Monday.

Cabral recently completed his 24th season as an assistant with the Buffaloes and 23rd season as a full-time assistant. He was the longest-tenured assistant coach in any CU sport and had worked under five different head coaches. When head coach Jon Embree was fired at the conclusion of the 2012 season and Mike MacIntyre was hired to replace him, Cabral opted for retirement.

By taking the job at Indiana State, Cabral will leave CU for the first time since he worked as a linebackers coach at Purdue in 1987-88. It was during his time at Purdue that he met Mike Sanford, who was recently named the head coach at Indiana State. He said the two have been friends since.

"I am so excited to work again with coach Mike Sanford, who I worked with in my first job at Purdue," Cabral said on the ISU web site. "We have a great opportunity here at Indiana State to build on what this program has accomplished so far. What the Sycamores were able to do defensively was impressive. Our job now is to help this program make the next step up."

Sanford said he was thrilled to add Cabral, who coached CU's linebackers for years.

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"Brian Cabral brings tremendous experience and expertise to our staff," Sanford said on the ISU web site. "He will be a great addition from a defensive scheme standpoint, but most of all for his ability to develop players and bring out the best in them. Brian cares deeply about student-athletes, a trait that both he and I share."

Cabral told CU's web site that Sanford had inquired about hiring Cabral several years ago when Sanford coached at UNLV, from 2005-09. The timing wasn't right at that point, with Cabral's daughter still in high school, but it is now.

"It's a great situation and great timing," Cabral told CU's web site. "I'm really starting a third career -- first the NFL, then CU and now I'm hitting the road. I'm really excited about it."

Cabral played linebacker at CU from 1975-77, graduating in 1978. He then played in the NFL from 1979-86, most notably with the Chicago Bears from 1981-86. He helped the Bears win Super Bowl XX in 1985.

Upon retirement as a player, he worked at Purdue for two years before making his home in Boulder in 1989.

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